What would YOU do?

[happymorrows]

I have sick birds. They are all about 8months old. Mixed heavy breed flock. They are not all showing signs of sickness yet, but those that are have runny noses, I have heard a cough here and there, one has swollen waddles and is lethargic, all pretty standard respiratory infection stuff. I contacted a vet at the NC state poultry science departments, she says it is probably viral. The folks at the feed store said to treat with antibiotics...which won't do any good for a viral infection, but can treat any secondary bacterial infections. I am trying to get in touch with the state Ag Dept, to get my chicks tested, but it is the weekend, and then I have to wait for results. My questions are...

1. Would you go ahead and treat the whole flock with antibiotics or just the birds with positive symptoms?
2. Would you treat them all with Tylan 50 or just some antibiotics in the water?
3. Or would you just let the virus run its course and hope for the best?
4. How many days do you treat with Tylan 50?

So confused about how to proceed.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

If it were me, I would treat the lethargic one with Tylan because lethargy in a chicken isn't good in my experience. But I personally wouldn't treat the whole flock with the antibiotic unless I saw more chickens come down with serious symptoms.

http://www.drugs.com/vet/tylan-soluble.html

This tells you how long to treat.
You can type in "tylan" on this above website and it will give you several choices to click on for tylan- differing preparations of it.
I have in my emergency kit for chickens the soluble kind-got it at Jefferslivestock.com I think. It goes in the water. Some people on this board have mentioned using the injectable kind. But I like medications that store a long time, and powder stores longer than liquid, generally speaking.

It mentions to not use in an egglaying chicken....I presume we must toss eggs after Tylan (but sorry I have never given it).

 

[RedRoosterFarm]

yep, me too. Seperate and treat the sick with tylan 50 3-5 days injected. Good luck!
Quote:

 

[Judy]

I would not want to mess with flock dynamics by separating a sick chicken unless I really felt I had to, as in a bloody chicken who's being attacked. In this case, everyone is long since exposed, so I wouldn't.

Since you are seeking professional help, I wouldn't treat anyone but the lethargic one until I knew more, if I did that.

 

[chickenzoo]

Some viruses are slow spreading, I would seperate the sick, disinfect everything with bleach, get new water and food bowels or soak in bleach very well, give all sick birds tylan 50 injections under the skin. Handle sick showing birds last. Do not use same clothes again to handle well looking birds. Keep sick birds contained with a cover or someplace dander can't fly into your other pens. Seeking advice from your local State Dept is a very good idea. Not to scare you but - Know that many respitory illnesses end up with the birds being carriers, so special steps will need to be taken to insure your remaining birds and any other persons birds remain safe.